I declared to the YLB audience, and all my friends and family on Facebook, that, with their support and help, I was going to publish a book. It was petrifying.

Oh sure, it was also exhilarating and exciting and awesome… but it was also petrifying. Ten minutes after Facebook’ing out the article I’d written, announcing there’s going to be a PledgeMe campaign to raise the $20,000 to publish this book…, I was anxiously hitting refresh to see what response I’d received.

Nothing. Nada. Not even a like. Seemed my bold intention had sailed out there into the universe without making nary a wave.

Omigod. What if I’m wrong? What if no one wants The Best of Yoga Lunchbox book? What if I’ve over-estimated the number of Loyal Lunchboxers out there in the known Universe? What if I’ve totally got all of this wrong?

The groundswell of doubts, and fears, and uncertainty, tipped me off my wave of exhileration and I landed flat on my face. I wanted to run and hide in my closet, huddled down underneath a coat, until it had all passed.

I didn’t though.

I noted the rollarcoaster of emotions within and a lightbulb went off. A-ha! So this is what it feels like to go out on a limb and declare boldly what you truly want to do with this one special life you’ve been given. A-ha! So this is why I’ve been pussy-footing around for so many years, going in circles around the one thing I truly want to do/be – publish a book/writer. A-ha! So this is why people don’t go after their dreams, preferring to keep them at arms length, in their head, as just that – dreams.

Who knew? Being bold. Chasing your dreams. Bringing those dreams into reality. It can generate all kinds of feelings, and many of them not nice.

This way of being, it’s one of those unconscious samskaras that sneaks into your life in childhood, solidifies during the teenage years and out-right rules your life in your twenties. Until you notice that life isn’t quite going according to plan. You start looking closer to see what’s going on, and why you’re not who you thought you were, or where you’d thought you’d be. And you notice that some of the decisions you’ve been making over the years, well, they haven’t exactly served you well. So you wonder, why not?

I see why not now. I feel things, deeply. All kinds of things. Nothing unusual there – most of us human-type of beings feel things deeply, all kinds of things. However, somewhere along the way, feeling those things deeply was too terrifying for me to do… so I learned some coping techniques where I didn’t have to feel those deeply felt things. That coping mechanism is way past it’s expiry date. What might have been useful when I was 7 years old, is no longer useful now I’m 37 years old.

Out with it.

So I’m feeling all the doubts, and fears and uncertainties over taking this bold step and I’m… feeling it.

That’s all. Just a-feelin’. I’m not buying into the whispered doubts, or the swirling fears, I’m not being sucked into the ‘what ifs’ of the uncertainties.

Maybe I am wrong. And maybe I’m right. Regardless, I’ve taken a huge step to making my dreams come true, and as the responses and feedback come in, I can re-adjust and re-aim and re-calibrate according to what the known Universe has to say.

It’s just a process.

That’s all.

I can handle it.

Dream-chasing – it’s an uncertain business. There will be fear. There will be doubt. But, success or failure, there is also freedom. I can feel it now, in my bones.

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About Kara-Leah Grant

Kara-Leah is an internationally-renowned writer, teacher and retreat leader. Millions of people have been impacted by the articles, books and videos she has published over the last ten years. Her passion is liberation in this lifetime through an every day path of dissolving layers of tension into greater and greater freedom and joy. You can find out more about her, including when her next retreats are, on her website. Kara-Leah is the visionary and creator of The Yoga Lunchbox.

Comments

Hey KL, as always, I am loving the honesty of your journey and I believe you have the boldness of heart and mind to make this happen. Sometimes a deep slash takes awhile for the ripples to show back here on safe land. xx

Spoken like a woman who knows.. because you do. And Marianne, you’re a big part of the inspiration for my bold move. Watching you set your mind, and your target, and do the hard work required to make it happen has been such a gift for a fellow writer. And now you’ve sold the American publishing rights to Zen Under Fire! Even more exciting!!!

Hey there… having dreams and wanting to make BIG changes is hugely scary! But that’s what makes them worthwhile. If they don’t scare us, then they aren’t big enough dreams, I reckon. Says the girl whose STILL trying to write her first ebook…